


Good Deeds

by donniedont



Category: Iron Man (Movies)
Genre: Domestic, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-11
Updated: 2013-01-11
Packaged: 2017-11-25 03:21:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/634579
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/donniedont/pseuds/donniedont
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tony begs for Pepper's assistance in the workshop.  What she finds is not quite what she expects, but she helps nonetheless.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Good Deeds

**Author's Note:**

  * For [WarExMachina (audiograms)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/audiograms/gifts).



> This is a gift for the Fury to my Coulson and one of my good friends Tay. She wanted me to write some Tony/Rhodey domestic fail. For some reason I also really wanted to write Pepper. So with her permission, I altered the prompt a little and included her in it. I hope you enjoy, as well as she does :o)

It was around twelve-thirty in the morning when Pepper got a text from Tony. It was very simple, albeit commanding: “Come to the Malibu house stat.” She just rolled her eyes and chose to ignore the text, continuing a conversation that she was holding with an enthusiastic, albeit klutzy PA about how she needed to make sure her schedule planning had appropriate time factored in for transportation. After five minutes, she got another text message. This one had a slightly different tone: “Please I need you.” Pepper decided that if there really was an emergency, he would call. So she didn’t respond.

Three minutes later, the phone rang. She calmly raised her finger to the PA and said, “One moment.” She brought the phone to her ear and announced, “I’m meeting with someone right now. What is it?”

“Why aren’t you responding to my texts?” Tony asked. It sounded like there was some kind of banging taking place in the background. Most likely bots helping Tony out with some sort of project.

“I just told you. I’m at a meeting.” She rolled her eyes and mouthed “Mr. Stark,” at the PA. The girl vigorously nodded her head and adjusted herself to sit taller in her chair.

“I need your help, Pepper! I’m trying to do a good deed over here, but it’s blowing up in my face!” Tony exclaimed, his voice edging on panicked.

Pepper pressed her lips together, attempted to process Tony’s tone, and replied, “Okay. Can you give me some time to finish my meeting and get on the road?”

“I already sent Happy to get you.”

“I’m not done with my meeting.”

“Pretty sure it’s not as time sensitive as my situation right now.”

Pepper groaned. “This better be good, Tony,” she said with gritted teeth.

“Totally is. See you soon.” 

“Bye,” Pepper concluded, realizing that the line was already dead. She calmly placed the phone down on her desk and looked up at the intern. “In conclusion, Allie, I just want to make sure that you understand that even small errors can lead to huge disasters. I know this is a little intimidating, but I think you are capable!”

The PA nodded her head. “Are you going to see Mr. Stark now?” she asked.

Pepper nodded. “Yes, I have to leave, unfortunately. We can continue this conversation at another time, if need be.” 

The PA nodded her head and quickly left the room. Pepper packed her things and made her way to the parking garage, where Happy was already waiting.

“Do you have any details as to what the situation is?” she asked him as he opened the door for her.

“He hasn’t told me anything,” he replied.

She leaned her head into her hand and sighed. “Of course he hasn’t,” she told herself and entered the car.

When they arrived the house, Pepper scanned to see if there was any obvious damage. No windows broken, fires, or knocked over plants. The conflict might actual be an internal struggle Tony needed help sorting out. Pepper found herself wishing that it was just a broken window.

“Where is he, Happy?” Pepper asked.

“He’s in his workshop, last I checked.”

She pressed her lips together for a moment and quickly nodded her head. “Thank you for the ride,” she told him, “If this can get resolved soon would you be okay with driving me back to the office?” 

Happy smiled and said, “I certainly wouldn’t mind.” 

She made her way to the workshop, thankful that it wasn’t locked off. When she entered the space, she found Tony in the kitchenette area, screaming at a pair of his bots. He had something in his hands, which Pepper noticed as he got closer was a food processor.

“You are literally an arm and claw, Dum-E,” Tony snapped, shaking the food processor in his hand, “At what point during your task do you go ‘Oh, hey, you know what’s really productive? Destroying something I’m trying to perform a task with!”

“Hey. I let myself in,” Pepper greeted.

Tony jerked his head around and let out a huge sigh. “Took you long enough,” he grumbled.

“What’s going on?” She scanned the kitchenette area and noticed the ingredients strewn across it. There were basil leaves, garlic cloves, boxes of macaroni, and a pile of plates and utensils. “You demanded that I left work to help you make lunch?” she asked, “Why don’t you just use your main kitchen?”

“I was trying to multitask,” he explained, putting the food processor down on the counter. “I needed to repair my suit, because I have no idea when I’m going to use it, but then I got a call from Rhodey saying that he’s going to be able to visit for a few days.” He brought his fingers to his temples and rubbed them. “So I figured ‘Hey, I’m a super genius, I can totally make Dum-E and You help me do both of these things,’ but then somebody decided to beat up the food processor.”

Dum-E sagged he slightest bit. Pepper raised her head and attempted to swallow down all of her frustration toward him. “Were you trying to make a pesto sauce?” she finally asked, “Why that?”

Tony shrugged. “I don’t really know. I figured it was a simple enough recipe that could still look impressive.”

Pepper took a deep breath and walked over to the food processor. “Can you fix it?”

“Yeah, in like. Two seconds. I just don’t have enough time to do all of this and I sure as shit don’t trust those two to do it anymore.”

Pepper passed it to him. “How about you focus on fixing this, okay? And I’ll work on as much as I can until then.”

“Thank you, Pepper,” Tony muttered as he disappeared into his working space. 

Pepper rolled up her sleeves and began to measure out ingredients. The more she thought about it, the happier she was that she was going to be able to see Rhodey because of this incident. She shooed Dum-E away from the counter space and began to cut up a clove of garlic. The last time Rhodey had time off, she was only able to see him briefly. The rest of the time he was holed up with Tony, doing what Tony only referred to as “boy stuff” complete with his thumb pressing his nose up and sticking his tongue out in her general direction.

“Are you going to eat at a table?” Pepper asked when there was a moment in which Tony wasn’t working on something too noisy.

“Maybe?” he asked, “I guess so… Oh. You’re totally invited, by the way. So make sure there’s enough supplies for you.”

“You don’t have to invite me,” Pepper replied. She had her suspicions that something was going on between the two of them. While she and Tony were exes at this point, she certainly wasn’t jealous. But she did know what signs to look out for when he was romantically interested in someone. Attempting to make time for that person while he was trying to repair his suit was one of them.

“Too late, you’re invited,” Tony announced, returning to the kitchenette area. “I think I fixed it. Repair some parts and all that. It’s a little crooked, but I mean, I can just make a new one from scratch if I had the time.” He clunked it on the counter and turned to her. “Thank you so much for helping me, again.”

His ability to let up his front and show that he was actually worried about something was certainly another sign that he was romantically interested.

JARVIS’s cool voice raced through the room. “Sir, you have a visitor at the door,” he announced.

Tony froze. “Goddammit,” he muttered.

“I’ll stall, I’ll stall,” Pepper said calmly, “I put everything in order of when it should come in your recipe. Just set up water to boil for your macaroni.”

Tony smiled and was pleasantly surprised when Dum-E successfully pulled a pot out from a cabinet and pressed it against him enthusiastically.

Pepper opened the front door and was greeted by Rhodey. His eyes widened and he said, “Oh, hey! I didn’t know you’d be here…”

“I didn’t plan on being here, honestly,” she said, letting him in. She walked behind him and smirked. So Rhodey must have felt the same way. She was somewhat surprised. She wondered if they had confronted each other formally about this.

Rhodey gave her a hug front the side and grinned. “Well, happy to see you nonetheless! Where’s Tony?”

“He’s… working on… something,” she said, “You know him. Suit needed repairs.” How much did Rhodey know was going on? 

Rhodey sighed, shaking his head. “Typical. I’ll go check up on him in the workshop…”

“He’ll be up soon,” she said, “He said we should hang out up here. So, let’s do that!”

Rhodey glared at her for a moment and shrugged. “I guess you’re right,” he said.

Pepper gladly chatted with Rhodey about his placement, what he had been up to, even what she had been doing since he was gone. Eventually, she got a text message and briefly looked at it. Sure enough, it was from Tony. It read: “I can’t balance all three plates. Help.”

She almost asked him why he didn’t use one of his bots, but resisted. She raised her hand while Rhodey was mid-sentence and said, “Sorry about this. Tony needs help with something.”

“Does he want me to…” Rhodey started.

“No! He’s got… ah… I got this.” She could feel Rhodey stare at her suspiciously as she disappeared to the workshop area and took two of the plates from Tony. “Rhodey’s catching on,” she whispered.

“Well, don’t worry about it, I’m ready,” Tony grumbled. As they entered the room Rhodey was sitting in, he said, “Oh, thanks, by the way.”

Pepper grinned. “Don’t worry about it,” she replied, “I was too impressed by your gesture to really be angry.”

He dramatically marched in front of Rhodey and clunked the plate at the coffee table in front of him. “Tah dah!” he announced, grinning so wide Pepper felt like her lips would ache. She passed Tony a plate of food and contently sat in a single chair, occasionally looking up from her food to note how Rhodey put his arm across Tony’s shoulder and how Tony contently leaned into him. She assumed that they would fill her in on those details when they were ready. For now, it was just the three of them and some pretty edible food. Thanks to her.


End file.
